Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get a short time to talk on behalf of the people we are representing, including small business people, farmers and fishermen. We know the talks that are coming up are critical for all our constituents. I want the Government to spell out a clear message to the people it is dealing with in Europe. The myth is out there that farmers are getting gift cheques in the post. We want to make people realise that these cheques in the post are not gifts at all. The cheques in the post are supposed to compensate farmers for not being properly paid for their produce and to ensure the consumers of Europe get cheaper food. That is what has been happening. Many farmers are at a crossroads, especially the small suckler cowmen, the men who produce good-quality beef and the people who are up in the middle of the night calving cows and trying to keep them alive. I know what it is like. There is just a bare fraction between keeping a calf alive or it being dead at a certain time if the farmer is not there to do everything right.

I appeal to the Government to see after the small farmers because they are at a crossroads. I wish the Minister of State well. He is from the same type of county and terrain as ourselves. I wish him well in whatever talks he is involved in. We need these talks to go well for the small farmers, the fishermen and the small businessmen. There is a chance to borrow money cheaply for infrastructural projects, such as sewerage schemes. There are people out there, even this morning on the radio, saying that no one should build out in the countryside and that people should be building in towns or villages. I remind the Minister of State that there is hardly a sewerage scheme in any part of Kerry. All of the existing schemes are gone beyond what they can process or deal with. There is a need for extensions and new schemes. Many villages are without any sewerage scheme at all. I refer to places such as Currow and Scartaglin. Castleisland has been waiting for an extension for 40 years.

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